Final Fantasy VII Retold
by LahtoriReikna
Summary: Left by her parents to the ShinRa, studied by Hojo, Latti becomes part of the ShinRa. Once a SOLDIER, a mission in Nibleheim comes up. Since then, her life isn't what it could be. She can change it, but that means going against a close friend's will.
1. Starting Point: ShinRa

**I wrote this fanfiction for me really, so I don't blame you if you think its too romance, (though i don't) and that the story messes up the story line a little, though I try not to mess anything up, I do all calculations as well as possible.  
(I've only seen Last Order and Advent Children, read some more about it, practically studied it, but I've never played the game, even though I have it, can't bring myself to play it cause after you play something with superb graphics, FFVII doesn't suit it. I'm pro for the remake though, I wouldn't waste a second of my life not playing it if Square makes a remake.)  
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When I was eight years old, my parents took me to the ShinRa. They said that a doctor there wanted me to stay where he could easily access to me in case of emergency. I took the news puzzling, I had never once gotten sick or had any injury that lasted more than two or three days. I could not, of course, not go.

At first, I used to be the little girl who always saw Doctor Hojo. I would be ignored by the Turks, looked down upon by SOLDIERs and be invisible to the other people there. It seemed as if only Hojo and Sephiroth could see me as I walked down the road to see Hojo once more for weird and unimportant check ups.

About three months after I turned nine, I got tired of Hojo wasting my time. Since I could not return home, I decided to join the ShinRa. I never told Hojo about my plans, as I knew he would not allow it. But I did tell one peson, Sephiroth. He was the only member of the ShinRa that seemed nice and trustworthy.

I approched him one afternoon, skipping my visit to the laboratories. He glanced up from his work and asked, "Latti? What are you doing here?"

I looked around to make sure he was alone before I asked him my question, "Do you think you could train me with a long sword?"

"What for?" he asked, jotting down something with his pen.

I hesitated, but not telling him would result in more suspicions, and not only that, but I think he already knew why. "So I can join the ShinRa," I told him rather quietly.

"You're too young," he simply replied.

The point was not pressed further, I knew better to protest. Unhappy and my spirits low, I walked back to my little house. So I was nine, I looked older, my height startled people. Not only that, but Hojo made me attend school, a rushed and cramming school, and I finished it all last year. Other people would take twelve to sixteen years to learn that all, I could recite everything I heard.

That night though, around eleven, Sephiroth came down to my little house and knocked. I opened the door, somewhat not surprised to see him there. He held a long sword in his right hand. I smirked and followed him to a deserted field. That night, I learned all the basics of swordfighting, and the next, started practicing with the sword. By the fourth night, Sephiroth told me I was doing pretty well for my first time, so he took out his and said he would 'allow' me to join the ShinRa if I could hit him with my sword.

It took me eight more nights of practicing to finally hit him. I barely touched him with the tip of my sword. He smiled and told me I wasn't half bad and he would love to fight me seriously some time. On a more serious note, he told me that in order for me to join the ShinRa, I would need a note from Hojo. And to get a note, I would have to get his permission.

Hojo, unlike I thought, accepted my request with pleasure. One more thing to hate him by. He just seemed so, ugh. I really hate that man, I want to kill him. I took the note from him and ran off, hoping that I would never have to see his ugly face again. On my way out, in my run, I ran into someone else whom I never met before.

"I'm sorry! Wasn't paying attention to my surroundings!" I quickly apologized and ran off again.

The person, I later recalled, had been pretty young as well. He looked back at me running off and shrugged. Sephiroth came up to the person and told him he was late.

"Not my fault. Ran into a little kid," the person replied. "Looked an awful lot like you too. Settled in have you?"

Sephiroth hit him over the head and dragged him by the collar of his shirt. "Don't talk non-sense. She bears no resemblance to me at all."

In reality, I sort of did. If I dyed everything the same color as him, I could pass as a femaly child like version of Sephiroth. And I would have to grow out my hair, I like it short. My hair is black, with dark blue roots. That sounds exactly what the opposite of Sephiroth would be, but it all works out. I had grey eyes and I was pale.

I had on a long sleeve top, black. On the left arm, a wide dark blue stripe ran down. I also wore a bracelet, silver, it had my name on it, only my first name, Latti. I have no last name. I wore some black pants, which looked a little baggy. I also put on at least three black belts everyday. One of them never changes, as it has short silver chains hanging off of it, on the left side, about five rows of chains. To finish off, I wore on long black boots, but my pants drooped over most of them. On the bottom of my boots, I had nailed in some slabs of silver metal. I thought it sounded cool when I walked around.

And so, two months later, I joined the ShinRa and quickly rose through the ranks, learning more and more as I went.

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© copyright LahtoriReikna  
**It's not that bad right? Once again, this fanfiction was originally meant only for my entertainment.  
Please do not be too hard on the judgement. You can be kind, or you can be kindly evil.  
Thank you all who enjoyed it, more coming soon.**


	2. Middle Point: SOLDIER

**I thank everyone who read the first chapter! I really appreciate it.  
Though I did not get any reviews, I'll live. Please enjoy this chapter!  
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It was when I turned eleven that I finally got the rank of SOLDIER. I couldn't be any happier, and honored as well. Since I joined, I wanted to become a SOLDIER, you could say, like Sephiroth.

Today would mark exactly one month since I became a SOLDIER. And I was going to be late to yet another meeting. It seemed like we were having ten meetings at the same time in different buildings. I couldn't see how everyone else managed to get there on time.

One person though, apart from me, was also late. I found his name later to be Zack. And after a longer examination, I recalled him from the person I ran into long ago. I made a sharp turn around the corner and once again ran into him.

"You must really like running into people," he said as he immediatly recognized me.

I apologized. "I'm sorry. Wasn't paying attention to my surroundings."

"You said that last time," he said, grabbing my arm and pulling me to my feet. "And you wouldn't have made it this far if you couldn't pay attention to your surroundings."

Once standing back up, I opened the door and recieved two light blows to the head.

"You're late!" Sephiroth said.

Zack stepped up behind me, "Sorry. She ran into me again. Delayed us further."

I squeezed past Sephiroth and took my seat, putting my new twinblade against the wall to avoid it from chopping me in two when I sat down. Zack also took his seat safe from any blows from Sephiroth, as I had taken his punishment as well. I let off a rather annoyed sigh but listened to the boring conversation anyway.

Sephiroth wanted one or two SOLDIERs to accompany a group of guards to a location not too far away from the ShinRa. He then wanted someone else to go with a second group that would go on a two night trip someplace further away. The remainder of the SOLDIERs would be needed to help train the new comers as the guards would be away.

"Make the Turks do the training. We don't have any spare time to play teacher," someone complained.

"Only Mr. President can tell the Turks to train them, I wouldn't want any bloodshed over training teachers, that's just ridiculous," Sephiroth replied.

"Who cares about the training! Who's going and who's stayin'?" one of the female members asked.

"You and Markus are going with the guards who will go on a two night trip," Sephiroth said. "And Zack and myself will be going with the other group."

That means that I would have to stay behind and train the new comers. I loved that idea of yelling orders at people, just loved them. They can't even pick up a sword! Oh well, it was better than being taken off to see Hojo again.

"The rest of you, you'll have to decide on a training schedule for all of you. I want equal shifts, nothing else," he finished. "Now get out. There's another meeting soon in this room."

Zack stretched his arms in the air and yawned. "There better be some action on this short trip," I heard him murmur to himself.

I stood up rather abruptly, but caught the chair easily before it fell clattering to the ground. I took my twinblade from the wall, strapped it back on and went back outside, the other SOLDIERs that would stay here were already discussing who should do what times and days.

I waved at them, telling them, "Anytime for me. I'll fill in the blank spots." And left back down the hall.

**_-Two days later-_**

I pulled up on the new motorcycles only the SOLDIERs were allowed to use and looked at the people already training on the field. They weren't half bad from the little glimpse I caught as I opened up a very well camouflaged compartment under the seat. Three sword handles poked out at me, I grabbed two and slid them through already prepared sword straps on my back. I pushed a small button and the compartment closed as I walked onto the field.

"Listen up. I'm your teacher today, any complaints, I don't want to here them," I shouted for everyone to here me.

Almost all of the newcomers were well into their twenty's, so when they saw me, they thought someone had played a joke on them. I flinched when about ten people asked me why I was so young.

"Look! I'm a first class SOLDIER. Get over the shock on your own time. Unless you all wish to test me! Go ahead, pick up a weapon and attack me," I told them. "Actually, i might have to actually take out my sword if you all attack me at the same time."

No one moved. I grinned, I didn't think they would. I told them to get back to training. I never liked teaching them, so I made things extra difficult when I had too. At least, when the guards come back, they would find better rookies.

One of them, I noticed, was doing pretty well for his first time. His name was Axin. He was only a teenager, probably fourteen years old. He had brown hair and shocking green eyes, and he wore the normal black uniform, for a Turk.

Did I ever mention that I hated the Turks?

"Don't swing that like a madman. The only thing you'll manage to break is your fingers," I told him, stopping his metal-like tube with a finger.

Someone behind me screamed. I turned around and shook my head. "See, that would happen."

I went over to that person and yelled the same thing I told Axin at him and told him to go to the medical center. This went on for the next three hours. When one of my comrades came to take over for me, a lot of them were half dead from the work out. They wouldn't complain though, as they would be much stronger and more skilled then before.

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© copyright LahtoriReikna  
**I hope you enjoyed this chapter for those who read it.  
I apologize though, the first three chapters are kinda boring, as nothing really happens.  
But once Sephiroth snaps, the fun begins. Patients please!**


	3. Ending Point: Nibelheim

**Chapter 3! The moment everyone has been waiting for.  
This is the last of those 'boring' chapters. This one gets exciting, so, do enjoy!  
One more thing, Cloud joined the ShinRa when Latti was twelve. (She's fourteen now, which means Sephiroth is gonna snaaaap!)  
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I turned fourteen just a couple days ago, and I could not feel any more lively. I had grown another couple of inches taller and gotten stronger from the mission I had been shooed off to do.

I walked down the hallway of the main ShinRa building, going to yet another meeting, this time, to go to Nibelheim. Monsters had been appearing there, and we had to investigate why and stop it from continuing. We would have a guide to the Mako Reactor, Tifa.

One of the guards had been invited to our meeting, which rarely happens here. His name was Cloud. He told us some more about Tifa and Nibelheim, which might prove useful to our visit there. We were also warned that we might have to stay in the town for a couple of days. We would leave in three days.

However, to my disgust, Hojo and other people I despised would accompany us. That's just the news to make me hate the coming job. In any case, three days from today, I had taken what I wanted to bring and had everything already installed on my motorcycle. I joined the SOLDIERs up ahead and we started our journey.

_**-Nibelheim-**_

The town was not big, and not small. A cozy kind of town in my eyes. Yet, what a cozy town was, I did not really know. I spent my entire life in the ShinRa, save my eight first years being locked up in my parents house not allowed to go outside or do anything with my time.

We were showed a mansion to the far south, where the ShinRa had arranged for us to stay there for our time in Nibelheim. Everyone got their own room, and everyone should be content. For odd reasons I could not explain, I wasn't. Something in the air told me we should have never come here.

The next morning, the guards that would accompany us arrived by plane and we met up with them. We awaited Tifa, who came running at us with a huge smile on her face. I noticed Cloud in the group put on his guards mask, to hide from Tifa. A shame really, whether he had made it to his goal or not, I would still show myself to someone you cared about. If Tifa was heartbroken to not see Cloud in our group, she did not show.

On we went up the dangerous mountain to the Mako Reactor. On our way, the bridge that had broken a couple times decided to break for us. No one was injured though, to our luck, and we pressed on. The Mako Reactor came into view about thirty minutes later of walking.

Tifa stayed on the outside, as she was forbidden to go inside. All the SOLDIERs and some of the guards entered the reactor. The second I stepped inside, I felt sick for the first time in my life.

Sephiroth and Zack go up ahead to locate the source of the monsters. They soon discovered that a malfunction in one of the hundreds of pods caused the monster increase. Zack quickly worked away to close the valve, then rejoins the group outside.

Sephiroth, I noticed on my way out, seemed deep in thought and did not look one bit happy. I stole a quick look back to where he had stood but found nothing unusual.

Back at the mansion, Sephiroth locked himself in his room, leaving Zack puzzled and me confused. The others did not notice anything. That night, I snuck out of the mansion and went back up to the Mako Reactor. I went over to the spot Sephiroth stood at, and looked around.

I noticed a tiny detail out of place, one of the pods had a tiny opening from a mal-closure. I went up to it, reopend it and looked inside.

"What the hell!" I asked myself.

Hojo snuck up behind me, startling me when he told me everything. He was involved in a project where he condenced Mako into Materia, and then added living organisms, which produced a mutated Mako organism. Of course, the Mako-engineered organism used to be human... The name of the project was simply put as the Jenova Project.

It struck me there that Sephiroth once had mentioned his mother was called Jenova. Why Hojo was telling me this though, still remained a mystery. Shouldn't he be telling this to Sephiroth? Of course, Hojo was smarter than I liked to give him credit, so him telling me this should mean something.

I knew the answer before I wanted to know. Hojo suddenly disappeared after that and I was once more left alone in the Reactor.

While I closed the pod, I felt uneasy. I did not know whether I should admitt to myself the answer I had given myself was true, or if I should forget the answer, or if I should tell Sephiroth. I had no idea what to do, but that did not matter as the door to the Mako Reactor once more opened.

I looked over my shoulder and almost lost my balance. The outside was engulfed in flames, and the person walking toward me, sword out...

"S-Sephiroth?" I stuttered.

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© copyright LahtoriReikna  
**YAY! I love the parts that are just so much fun to type. Expect chapter four soon.  
What happens next? You should know a little. Sephiroth goes 'snap'! Evilness!  
Disclaimer: I do not own the FFVII 'series' (ill call it that, last order, FFVII, and advent children) but Latti is MINE! Latti is my character.  
Thank you! **


	4. Sephiroth Snaps

**Oh yeah, this one is a big one!  
I hope everyone enjoys this one... so... Enjoy!  
And just a heads up, school has started for me, so I have limited time to update my stories, but please be patient!  
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Sephiroth walked my way, and pushed me to the edge of the walkway with the flatness of his sword. I had a feeling that I did not need to tell him what Hojo told me. And I felt like I should run away and not see what Sephiroth would do, but I couldn't move. Outside, I heard Tifa scream something and Zack came running in, his weapon out.

"Sephitorth!" he yelled.

Sephiroth did not turn away from what he stared at. When he did though, I noticed that he held a head in his hand, Jenova's head. Zack attacked but miserably failed. Zack did not move from his new position and being who I was, I had to go help him, but the only thing I got from trying to do that was a kick in the stomach.

"Latti..." Sephiroth spoke. "Have you met Mother yet?"

I had no chance to reply as Cloud emerged from the shadows and wounded Sephiroth in the stomach.

"Don't push your luck," he growled, taking Cloud's sword out and countering with his sword slicing through his stomach.

Cloud now dangled over the emptyness of the Reactor. I have no idea what happened, but Cloud's eyes shined green for a second and Sephiroth said something I did not catch. The moment Cloud pulled himself toward Sephiroth by 'sliding' on the sword, I looked away, disgusted.

It seemed forever before I remembered who I was. I grabbed my twinblade and ran toward Sephiroth, as Cloud had been thrown off to the side. He blocked, but I didn't jump back, I pressed on as hard as I could.

"Attacking members of your own family?" Sephiroth teased, swinging his sword to make me recoil.

I regathered my focus and went to strike him once more, but he put his hand up and I halted. He sort of smiled and told me, "No time for a serious fight now. Say good-bye to your mother... you won't be seeing her for a while," he said and slowly walked over to the edge of the platform.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Researching. Tell my regards to Hojo, and that he doesn't have long to live," he replied. "Until next time, Latti. I'll have a cake for a little family reunion no?"

And with that said he jumped.

It took me a second to understand what happened. Somewhat confused and yet knowing exactly what happened, I shook my head. Trying to forget all the information that Hojo told me, I went over to help Zack. I almost reached him when something weird happened to me. The Reactor around me darkened and blurred and spun around me. I reached for Zack but instead fell next to him, clutching my head for a minute then I lost the fight to keep conscious.

I had no idea why all of a sudden I collapsed, I had not been wounded by Sephiroth, not worn out, maybe terrified for some part of this whole deal and angry at Sephiroth and almost every little emotion played a role. The only thing I sort of remember is Hojo and Turks coming into the Reactor, lifting us out on stretchers, and Hojo staring at all three of us, Zack, Cloud, and me.

When he saw me, he smirked, enjoying everything.

The next time I woke up, I was back at the ShinRa, in Hojo's lab. He heard me get up and greeted me. I glared at him as I always do.

"Where's Zack? And Cloud?" I asked him.

"Under my supervision, like yourself," Hojo replied. "And after what I've gathered, I made a little mistake making you. You're too connected to Sephiroth, which is why you lost conscious after he jumped. You shake your head, but if you look at your stomach, tell me why theres dry blood all over it?"

Indeed, Hojo told the truth. Though I hated hearing that I was made, though I hated Hojo and would love to kill him, he told the truth.

"I'm going to fix this little problem. But right now, I need to see how the results turned out," he said, smiling down at me and opened another door in the room. I caught a glimpse of Zack's feet and knew what Hojo had done. I guessed the door on the opposite side held Cloud.

I looked at the main door, not to look for an escape as I knew Hojo would've thought of that already. But the sign on the door made me shrivel up in hatred.

"Jenova Project."

And underneath the words, a piece of paper with names. The names of the people involved in the Jenova Project, and by involved, I mean the victims. Sephiroth and my name were listen on the top, as Hojo like calling us 100 pure. Cloud's and Zack's name underneath, along with other names I never heard of before.

We wouldn't see the outside world in a long time. And when we did, we weren't greeted with open hands.

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© copyright LahtoriReikna  
**That wasn't that big... Oh well. I tried my hardest making it great.  
If you haven't guessed it by now, the next chapter is when Zack helps Cloud escape. Latti is kind of stuck in between everything, and choices aren't fun.  
Disclaimer: I do not own the FFVII 'series' but Latti is MY character, please respect that! Thank you.**


	5. Escaping the ShinRa

**Oh wow, long wait... Sorry for the long wait everyone, I'm been busy busy.  
But its here now, so lets not make the wait longer!  
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Time passed slowly, I have no idea what day or year it was. It was just another day to me. I haven't been allowed outside, but I knew I had more freedom than Zack or Cloud had, whom I haven't seen since long ago.

I stood by the only window in the room, looking at the sun sinking under the trees and the sky turning dark blue as night approached. I felt watched, and not only by Hojo, but by someone else. I let my feelings slide though, I didn't really care. Time has changed me, I no longer look foward to the next day, I wish every night that I won't wake up, that Hojo made a fatal mistake, but I always wake up, I'm always in perfect health, always always. I hated always.

"If you stare at the sun too long, you'll go blind," Hojo said from his chair near the locked door behind me.

"Good. I won't have to see you then," I replied.

"Well, at least you're optimistic about blindness, not that you could ever get it," he said, chuckling.

Oh how much I want to see him plead for mercy. Not that he could ever get it. I kicked the cabinet beneath the window with my foot, sending glass vials crashing to floor and breaking. Liquids ran along the floor, weaving in and out of the hundreds of glass shards. Hojo said something about wasting his potions.

A knock came from the outside of the door, so Hojo got up and left, leaving me alone again. I had enough, I want out, but I just did not know when the good time would be. And that's when the door leading to Zack's 'room' bashed open. I looked back and saw him walking through the door, holding his right side, which he most likely used to open the door.

"Zack?" I asked.

He mumbled something about the ShinRa and their doors under his breath before going to the opposite side of my room to Cloud's side. He repeated the process and disappeared into the room, coming out a minute later with Cloud on his back. Cloud looked aweful, I knew what had happened to him, but I never knew it would be like that.

"Yo, Latti," Zack said. "We're ditching this place. You comin' to Midgar?"

Finally, I could escape. "No," I replied.

"Your loss," he said.

"I never said I wasn't leaving," I told him. "I'm just not going to Midgar."

"Like I said, your loss," he replied.

He went to one of the tall locked cabinets that had never been opened as far as I could remember. He pointed to the handles and said, "Open these."

"I can't open those, its locked. I need Hojo's card," I said.

"Fine then, hold Cloud," he said. "I'll open them."

"You want what?" I said, shocked.

Zack looked at me, and I sighed and went to the cabinet and grabbed onto the handles and pulled. Nothing happened. Zack criticized my strength, "Man, after who knows how long with Hojo and his experiments, you can't even open up a locked cabinet?"

My hands tightened around the handles at the name Hojo. I glared at Zack, but tried again, this time, the entire left part of the door ripped off its hinges. Inside the thing, Zack's weapon and my twinblade. I felt stupid now as I grabbed Zack's sword and handed it to him then took mine.

"Okay then," Zack said. "Later!"

He threws Hojo's chair at the window, shattering it to pieces, then jumped out, landing on the ground below and running for it, leaving me in the room. The sound alerted Hojo and the people outside the door as they opened the door and marched back inside. Two Turks came at me to capture me to prevent my escape. When I dodged them, they took out their weapon.

I jumped up at the swing, landing on the tip of their weapon, backflipping off and kicking the first Turk in the head. Without thinking or looking back, I jumped out the window, landing silently on my feet on the ground.

SOLDIERs and guards and other members of the ShinRa were already rushing out at the alert of the Jenova Poject's escape. I heard one of the SOLDIER's motorcycles coming before I saw it, and when it came nearer, I went in front of it, and stopped it with my foot, then walked onto its top and spun a kick at the SOLDIER's head, sending him flying into the building I had jumped out of. I seated myself onto the motorcycle, opened a little storage container and put my twinblade in it, then kicked the engine to life and hit the pedal with everything I had. I sped out of the ShinRa, not saying goodbye.

The radio of the vehicle was still onand connected to the ShinRa, so I heard all the orders and status reports on the escapers. They concetrated more on Zack and Cloud though. I did not like how Zack had not taken one of the many motorcycles near the entrance of the ShinRa, it would have made his run a little easier.

I turned onto a deserted road in the middle of nowhere and kept on driving. My destination, anywhere but Midgar.

"...stolen a motorcycle and is headed toward the highway..." the radio spoke. "... helicopter coming..."

I scanned the skies, not seeing the helicopter. It took fifteen minutes before I spotted it far away, it had Turks written all over it.

"...back of a truck..." the voice sounded from the radio. "... Midgar as destination... Turks coming in... wait for-"

I punched the radio in, crushing it in two. Zack can't handle a helicopter on his own, with Cloud in that state, on a normal truck driven by some guy. I took a shard turn to the left, the tires kicking up dust as I drove across the sandy desert toward the highway. To my luck, I spotted the truck right away, and to my horror, the helicopter as well. I pressed the pedal harder, but the motorcycle could not go any faster without blowing up.

Zack turned, then got ready to shield Cloud. The helicopter locked onto them and fired. I was still too far to do anything expect yell, "ZACK!"

Pain shot into my body from an unknown source. The pain hurt too much for me to keep hold of the motorcycle. I slid off the seat and landed hard on the sand, rolling down a little bit, the motorcycle falling onto its side a couple of feet ahead of me. The pain slowly faded, but I stayed there, not moving.

A voice sounded in my head once and only once. It whispered a name before I screamed out in pain as it shot through my body again.

"Sephiroth."

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© copyright LahtoriReikna  
**Don't you love happy cliffy endings?  
I'm that type of person who can't stand waiting too long for what happens next. So the point is, I will try to update with the next chapter as soon as possible. I still have many school-related things to do, and I must do good, but I'll try. Patience is key.  
Please check my profile at least once a week, I do try to post a notice if I'm going away or why the update is taking so long, or any other reason. So please check, I update my profile almost every two days if I get the chance, and I state my reasons if ever need be.  
Disclaimer: I do not own the 'FFVII series', but Latti is MY character. Thanks.**


	6. Reunited

**Okay, time to get the story going. Poor Zack has passed away now.  
Lets give a moments silence to remember Zack...  
...  
Right. Back to the fanfic!  
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I woke up in an unfamiliar room, laying down on a bed in a warm house. I had no idea who brought me here and what happened since that voice sounded in my head. But I did notice the pain had vanished. The only problem now was what to do.

I swung my legs over the side of bed, then hoisted myself up, the wooden floor creaking under unfamiliar pressure. The sudden movement awakened an old man in a chair at the back of the room. He looked up and gave me a heartwarming smile. He spoke then, "I'm glad to see you are awake."

I did not reply. I studied the man, thinking I had seen him somewhere before, but the memories could not come back into mind.

"You must be confused no? I am the old man of this town," he said, not giving a name though. "And you are the SOLDIER Latti if I am not mistaken."

The old man more stated that then asked, but I shook my head no. "exSOLDIER more likely," I corrected him. "I have no idea how you know who I am though, so start explaining. I... I'm running low on time."

My eyes wandered to the window, thinking about the last words I spoke. In truth, was I really running out of time, and if I was, what for. I hate my situation, but I could not do anything about it I suppose. I told myself firmly that only time will tell what was going on.

"Well then, I'll start from the top. You were escaping the lab run by Hojo with Zack and Cloud, except you did not want to go to Midgar," he started.

My eyes narrowed, looking with great suspicion to the man. It made him smile again and chuckle for a second before regaining seriousness.

"How do I know all this? Haha. Tifa told me over the phone," the old man said. "Latti, you are in Nibleheim."

Well, that explained why I felt like I had seen this man before. I must have caught a glimpse of him on my mission here. Those memories shot like rockets inside my mind, making me grit my teeth. Because of that, the world I see ended up like this.

"Back to my story. I found you, unconsious next to your motorcycle. I do not know the details of what happened in between your escape and when I found you. But I brought you back, along with your motorcycle, which I am afraid, won't be working any time soon. And here you are now, standing and breathing and conscious after three days," he concluded his story.

"Three days!" I said, letting a gasp escape out of shock.

"Correct," he replied.

I glared at the man for no reason. "Why didn't you try to wake me up? I have no idea why, but I think I wasted time!" I half asked, half stated.

"We tried, many people tried Latti. You are to blame, as you were out cold. I had doctors examine you, but they couldn't get any results. You'll have to answer why three days yourself," the old man said, and got up. " Now then, as we finished talking here, I suppose you might want some food?"

I wanted to say yes, that my stomach starved for some good food, but the words that came out seemed out of my control, "No. I'm going to walk around."

"As you wish," the old man replied and left the room.

**_- Nibleheim Streets - _**

This place changed a lot since the last time I came here, and that was on the mission. I walked around, not paying attention to where I walked, just thinking about random things. I had no idea what would happen, but something gave me a clue to what would. In my brainless strole, I found myself at the Mako Reactor once more, standing in front of the place were the body of Jenova used to be.

As I looked around, barely taken in my surroundings further than three feet away, I noticed that some of the pods had been opened and not sealed again. And whatever used to be inside gone as well, but at that time, I did not know who had taken them, or if they had just walked away.

I started to walk back out to the door, but stopped when I heard something move behind me, but when I looked, nothing was there. I told myself that my imagination wants to play tricks on me and once more headed toward the door. As I neared the door and reached out to grab it, another wave of pain came, but it came and left so fast, it took me a second to realize what had happened.

Once more, I smelled the nice fresh air, and looked down upon Nibleheim from the mountain. It defently changed a lot, maybe for the better, as long as fire doesn't get to it again. I moved toward the bridge again, hearing footsteps behind me, but I did not look back and just continued back to the old man's house.

The motorcycle I had stolen indeed could not run anymore, just as the old man told me earlier. I still wanted to retrieve my twinblade, I would not allow myself to leave something so important to me stuck inside a broken piece of metal. With a swift movement, I pushed a button that should have opened the place my twinblade lay in, though it did not.

Beginning to get angry, I kicked the vehicle with my foot as hard as I can, and the little door to the compartment flew off, along with part of the hull. The shining of the blades made me happy again, I haven't used my twinblade in such a long time. I picked it up, swung it twice in a circle and neatly strapped it to my back, then headed out onto the streets once more, the footsteps reoccuring.

I stopped abruptly, and so did the footsteps. I let out an aggrivated sigh, I had enough of this following thing for the day. In one quick movement, I grabbed my twinblade and turned around, striking my follower. But my twinblade did not hit the follower, but hit another blade, a long one at that.

"Latti," the follower said. "You sure greet people nicely these days."

I did not want to look up, I did not want to see the person standing there. I stepped back once, then again, butI could not help it, I had to see it. And when I did see the person, I dropped my twinblade, which clattered on the street.

"Don't be so loud, I don't want people to get alarmed," the person said. "And didn't I tell you not to ever drop a weapon in an enemy's territory?"

"You're no enemy," I mumbled.

"Of yours at least," the person replied, stepping once toward me again.

His hand reached out and grabbed me on the shoulder to keep me from stepping back again. As he did though, I felt pain erupt from the shoulder he grabbed down to my foot, and that voice sounded in my head again, saying the same thing. But just before everything blacked out and I fell into his arm, I noticed it wasn't a voice in my head, it was mine.

"Hmm... You are right Zack," the person thought, bending down to grab my twinblade without dropping me, "she does look like me, in way."

**_- Old Man's House -_**

The old man looked out the window, catching a glimpse of Sephiroth and me. He did not scream or shout that the dead had come back to life. He was not surprised really, as he had worked with Hojo on the Jenova Project for a while. And yet, even though he knes what would happened, he pretended like he saw nothing and grabbed his plate filled with food and began to eat.

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**Erm.. yup. Hope you liked it, even though there wasn't a lot of action.  
**© copyright LahtoriReikna  
**Stay tune for the next chapter, which might take a while, because as I have not played the game, I'm going on what I read and heard, so fill in the "missing" spaces with FFVII. You'll see what I mean by "missing" soon. (Its not really missing, its just... cut short, sorry in advance. its still good.  
(I have to state, I originally had this fanfiction as just an Advent Children fanfiction, since I know that movie back to front))  
Enough boring chatter though.  
Disclaimer: I do not own the FFVII Series, but Latti is MY character.**


	7. Latti's Mistake

**Yes, finally, the next chapter. The moment everyone patiently waited for.  
I apologize in advance, this really makes FFVII look like a five second game, but since I cannot play the game until the remake, I'm going on what I've read and played at friends houses. So, if it seems fast paced, it is. I'm sorry, I really am.  
And if I get things mixed up, im very very very sorry. Please enjoy it nonetheless.****  
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All I know now is that five years have passed since the Nibleheim mission. Or so, that's what Sephiroth told me when I woke up after our little weird reunion in Nibleheim. So I guess I was nineteen now, but age doesn't matter anymore. What matters is my hatred toward Hojo, since Sephiroth said I could have my revenge soon. I really had no idea what was going on for a long time. I had no idea what Sephiroth had summoned a metoer that was coming down to destroy this planet. I had no idea why Sephiroth was all cold and evil now.

But at the time, it didn't matter. I didn't care what happened to the world. But that soon changed. And no one could guess what changed my mind on certain views of things. It was the same minute, the same second, that I killed Hojo.

He greeted me with a smile when I came to kill him. He told me how idiotic I had turned out to be. And just like at the time in the Mako Reactor, he told me the occuring events. I learned the truth behind Sephiroth's cold and evil intentions. But I didn't take them into heart until after I stabbed him through the heart and exploded his lab. On my way down the hallway, which had been littered with dead guards I had killed earlier, I saw a group of people run bythe window, people I had seen before.

Cloud and Tifa.

I recognized those two. I knew who they were, and Hojo's words came back to haunt me. I had killed Hojo, yet his words would stay in my mind. I had not completely gotten rid of Hojo. And it was true, I had been living a lie for the couple of months of my freedom. The Mako Reactors had been shut down permantely, the ShinRa was in a horrible posistion. I finally noticed all the changes that had happened.

Avalanche.

It had to be true now. But still, how could Sephiroth ever want such a thing? The hero. The best SOLDIER the ShinRa ever had. The friend I could turn to in the old days.

Zack.

He died. But what after that? I knew nothing about Zack, the one who I met by running into.

Once back at Sephiroth's hideout, after telling him the good news, after eating some cold dinner with Kadaj, after putting my twinblade on a shelf to take a short rest... Sephiroth came into my room, looking extremely agitated about something. He kept on muttering something about Aerith, and the next day's paper covered the death of a 22 year old girl named Aerith. It took a no brainer to figure out what had happened.

So, just to make sure Sephiroth had the right point, I told him two days later that I had my revenge and I no longer wanted anything to do with his plans.

Of course, he took it the wrong way and just ended up arguing with me. All of a sudden, just as Kadaj came out of the other room, Sephiroth took out his long sword and went to strike me. It came so fast I never had time to react and take out my twinblade. The best I could do was step to the right and avoid the worst injury. The tip of his sword cut deep into my left arm, and pain like the pain I used to feel whenever Sephiroth touched me erupted into my body again.

The blood poured quickly, and if I didn't die from blood-loss, I didn't know what would kill me. I sunk down onto my knees and he came over to me, took my twinblade and threw it across the hall. Then he kicked me in the chest, throwing me down onto the ground and put his foot on my chest, glaring down at me.

Without anything else, Sephiroth turned to Kadaj and ordered him to take me to Midgar and place me anywhere he wanted to. He never wanted to see me again.

And so I as taken to Midgar. The only thing Sephiroth hadn't really known is that me and Kadaj got along great. Even though he was a about four months younger than me. He drove around until he found a nice place that look comfortable and helped me get into a sitting position against the wall. Looking sad, he got back into the car and drove away. And there I sat, all day and night, waiting for my arm to stop bleeding beneath the black cloak I wore. Waiting for the pain to go away. Waiting for my brain to understand what had just happened.

The night passed quickly, and day arrived quicker than the night had passed. Even though my arm still throbbed, the bleeding had stopped, and I felt no more pain, I got up and walked around the streets. I had no weapon. My favorite weapon, gone. I sighed. Nothing I could do about it really, I just needed to find a place to stay and work. I found myself looking up at the bar called 7th Heaven without even realizing it.

Cloud and Tifa could not recognize me though, as it had been too long for them to remember me. But I went in, deciding that in order to keep Sephiroth out of my mind, I should ask where Zack was buried.

"Zack?" Tifa asked behind the counter. "Which Zack?"

"The exSOLDIER," I replied.

"What's your business here? You aren't from the ShinRa are you?" she asked.

I laughed once. "Hell no. I just want to see Zack, that's all," I told her.

Still suspicious, she told me the directions and I took off. Two minutes after my deparure, Cloud came up on the secret elevator and asked Tifa who she had been talking too.

"This girl came in and asked where Zack was buried," she said. "She said she wasn't from the ShinRa either. She kinda looked sad too. But that's what everyone looks like now these days."

"Well, its best not think about who she was, we can figure it out later. Get ready Tifa," Cloud said as the rest of the group came up. "It's about time."

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© copyright LahtoriReikna  
**Erm yeah. You can now understand why I said this chapter defently makes the game look like five seconds.  
I'm sorry.  
This one wasn't very interesting, but I'm trying my hardest. Once we get to the Advent Children part of the fanfic, things will start to liven up, since thats the most definite part that I can write. W00t. I can't wait.  
And I apologize for the wait.  
Disclaimer: I do not own the FFVII series, but Latti is MY character.**


	8. 7th Heaven: Part I

**Yay, Chapter 8! I am on a roll!  
Please note that Latti is now 19. Well, you can note or not. It's you choice.  
Enjoy!

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**

I stood in front of Zack's grave, staring at it, not moving, just looking at it. I should have been here the day he was buried, not following Sephiroth. The Hero. Well, he no longer is a hero I guess, since I had a strong feeling everything ended tonight. I sat down on the earth, still staring at the tombstone, I had no idea what to say.

My arm still throbbed painfully, but I payed no attention to it, it was my punishment for doing all the stupid things I've done. So I stayed there, by Zack's grave, all the while Cloud and the rest of them fought Sephiroth to the death. Even though it felt like I was being torn apart like Sephiroth, I ignored it. Though it got better over the days spent with him, and harmful happenings to him would appear on me as well.

The only thing that started to worry me about an hour later is that, if Sephiroth really does die, would I die too?

Ah well, if I died, no one would care and I could yell at Sephiroth all I want then go see Zack I guess. But that didn't sound right in my mind. It felt like I waited in front of the grave for another year, but the world around me finally started to grow black. This was it. The answer to my question. Oh well.

_I don't want to die!_

The thought struck me hard and fast, but had no effect. I slumped the earth, on top of Zack's grave and there I lay.

**_- 7th Heaven -_**

When I woke up, I found myself to be in the last place I would think to find myself in. Tifa sat on a stool next to the bed I lay on, reading a book. When I sat up, it acknowledged the fact that I had awakened. She turned to me and said, "Good morning."

"Uh-" I started.

Suddenly, voices sprung out from the other side of the bedroom door.

"Cloud! Stop!" some girl yelled.

"What are you doing?" some guy said.

"Let me go!" I heard Cloud say.

The door gave way and in scrambled the people from the outside. Cloud help papers in his hand, waving them frantically, the girl there looked ticked off and the guy... well... He didn't express anything, but I guess he was angry at something. Tifa looked over from me to the people.

"What's the meaning of all this? Can't you see she needs rest? OUT!" Tifa yelled.

"But Tifa! That's her!" Cloud spoke none-sense.

"Vincent, please take Cloud somewhere else," Tifa said the the guy in the room, wearing red.

He nodded and dragged Cloud out of the room, the other person joining them. Tifa got up to close the door and sat back down, smiling at me.

"Care to explain?" Tifa asked.

"Explain what?" I asked.

She raised an eyebrow, but replied, "We found you... well, near death, at Zack's grave. And you were the person I gave directions to as well."

"Oh. Zack was a friend of mine," I replied. "When we were in the ShinRa together, that's all."

"And how come you were in your condition?" she asked. "Not to be rude or offensive, but you did sleep for about 4 days now."

I looked at her before sighing. "Just ask Cloud. He has all the data on me on those sheets of paper. Just tell him I'm not an enemy okay?" I told her and then looked outside the window, refusing to say anything else.

"How- How do you know Cloud?" Tifa asked, but I did not reply.

Tifa got up and left a couple minutes later. When I heard the door click in place, I stood up, pain in my legs, but walked around the room twice anyway. What was I going to do? I did not feel like explaining everything to everyone here. I also needed to find a job, get money, find a place to stay, live my life in solitude I guess. But that just did not sound like me. Something was wrong with me. Why was I acting like this?!

I went over to the window and stared outside. It's because of Hojo. If he had never been alive, none of this would have happened in my eyes. But he was dead now. I shook all thoughts out of my head and turned my attention to my left arm. I ripped the cloak arm off, feeling the dried and new blood inside the fibers. The cut from Sephiroth's sword had cut through the muscle, which explained why I couldn't move it. It still bled.

The good news about my arm, I kind of understand what he always ment, saying a being of Jenova's doesn't die.

Just as I ran my finger gently over the cut, feeling pain tingling, the door opened and Tifa came back inside, looking sad and angry about something. But those emotions quickly disppeared when she saw my arm. She let off a shriek and Cloud ran up, ready for anything. But what he saw wasn't me killing Tifa as he had expected, but me trying to get away from her.

"Stay put! Let me see your arm!" she kept on saying.

"Don't touch it!" I said, dodging her. "Keep away."

"But your arm! It's wounded... a lot! I need to see it so I can treat it. I won't know how to deal with it if you don't let me examine you!" she said.

I said, "Its perfectly fine. Nothing you will do will make it better."

It went on for three minutes at least, until Tifa cornered me. She quickly grabbed my left wrist and examined the wound closely. Her thoughts on it became known to me and Cloud, "Wow, that's some bad wound. Where did you get that?"

"..." I did not reply.

"Well, it doesn't really matter. Cloud, get some antibiotics and bandages," she said.

Cloud didn't really move from his position in the room. "It's not going to do anything. That wound will never heal," he said.

"And why not?" Tifa interjected.

I finished Cloud's train of thought, "Because, Sephiroth gave me this wound. It won't heal on me."

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© copyright LahtoriReikna  
**There we go! End of chapter 8. Nothing really important happened, but next chapter will.  
I hope I'm not boring anyone. I really hope so.  
Disclaimer: I do not own the "FFVII Series" but Latti is my character, thanks.  
**


	9. 7th Heaven: Part II

**Alright, now we are getting somewhere! The fun begins, or so, thats I what I think.  
I love Advent Children man! wOOt! erm... yeah. on with the show!  
Enjoy!

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**

Tifa could not be talked into not treating my arm. No matter what I said or how Cloud explained the situation, she still applied the antibiotics that made my arm numb and evern more useless and bandaged it. In the end, I figured struggling wouldn't help anything at all. I was at the mercy of Tifa.

The next day or two, I stayed in 7th Heaven, and I met the team that had fought Sephiroth. Yuffie and Vincent I had met barely for a second nights before. But I met for the first time Barret, Cid, Cait Sith, and Red XIII. I also met Marlene, who helped take care of the bar with Tifa, they were a bunch of nice people. I felt out of place, as I was technically their enemy since I had followed Sephiroth for a long period of time.

But after a while, I got used to being there, and Cloud decided I wasn't a danger, so he stopped being cautious around me. For the first time in a long time, I felt happy.

Around two weeks into my stay, nearing midnight, Cloud knocked and entered in my room. I was surprised at the midnight visit, but I had not fallen asleep. In fact, I was sitting on the windowsil, staring out at the sky, counting the billions of stars in the sky and watching the moon take its turn in the sky. I knew Cloud had files on me, which he had stolen that day when I had killed Hojo. I knew he knew about me more than I probably did, but I couldn't change the past.

"So you say Latti, that you are not my enemy," Cloud said out of the blue. "But by doing so, you made yourself right inbetween us and him. Are you okay with that?"

I had a feeling he meant the reasoning behind my arm. The main reason why I got it injured was by saying I didn't want anything to do with Sephiroth's plans really. Of course, I also did not want anything to do with Avalanche or their plans. Wishes though, even if they don't have a wish at the beginning, never come true. That's the hard fact about life.

I sighed, shrugging my shoulders. At this point in time, I had no idea what I really wanted to do. "I figure that, if he was still alive, he would now think of me as his enemy. Which, technically, you think the same thing," I said, returning to stare out the window. "But its not like I can do anything about it anymore. I don't have my twinblade anymore, I don't have anywhere to go, I'm just a normal commoner you see on the streets staying at a bar."

Cloud shook his head, "Yeah right. Have you seen the people outside? The buildings outside? You need to visit Midgar, its slowly falling apart."

I kept on staring outside the window, the buildings, I knew, where becoming unwelcoming. I suspected as much, though what was happening, I had no idea. I knew it couldn't be something that Sephiroh was doing, since he was dead, but maybe it was his clones. Or Jenova. The person who seems to be called our mother.

I ended up staying at the bar for a very long time, and got used to everyone there. Though most of them started to leave and return to their original lives, it felt like I had known them for my entire life. I vivsited Zack's grave a lot, and helped around the bar, as payment for my staying there. But no matter how hard I tried, I could not forget the position I had landed myself in.

Tifa set up a delivery system, which she used to help the growing number of orphaned children in the streets. The ShinRa released a warning that a disease was going around, which was given the name as Geostigma. This disease infected mostly children, though anyone was suseptible to get it. Geostigma would slowly kill a person, it cause lots of pain and mortal weakness. The only good part about this disease, its non-contagious.

We soon took in a kid named Denzel, who was affected by the disease on his forehead. It shocked me how he could live with having such a disease around his head. I tried to study the disease, but the only thing I figured out more through gut feeling than research is that it won't affect me, to be more precise, someone born from Jenova's cell and Hojo's crazy research.

And then, one day when I was walking around the streets with Cloud, he suddenly grasped his arm. He tried his hardest not to flinch, but the slight movement of his eye told me that he was affected by it. He asked me to keep it a secret from Tifa and the others, though I argued the fact he shouldn't hide it from the people who cared about him. But over time, it got worse and worse, and I starting feeling really bad about not telling Tifa.

I sat outside during one night, the night exactly one year and a half since the day I arrived at this bar. I stared at the stars and the moon in the night sky. The stars shoned with great power over the city, as if trying to revive everyone and everything. The wind picked up without warning, and these hideous creatures materialized in front of me just as Cloud opened the door to see what I was doing in the middle of the night.

It took mere seconds for me to be surrounded by the creatures, but I just looked around at them in circles, seeing if I could identify them. At the same time, they all jumped at me, ready to eat me alive, and Cloud had no time to react within the next second to save me.

The ones that hung onto my left arm, sending extruciating pain got lucky, as I had not managed to move that arm yet. But the others, I was able to thrown them off. Without my twinblade, some would thing I would be helpless. But without strength, a twinblade is just decoration. All it took to defeat these things was a kick in the right place, sending them away to the dust.

By the time I managed to unhinge the creatures off my left arm, it had started to bleed again, seeping through the bandages rapidly. But all this happened in just a couple seconds.

"You're not that bad!" Cloud said, teasing. "And you said you were helpless without your twinblade."

I turned around, and pointed to the blood which dripped onto the ground from the tips of my fingers. Cloud just stared, not knowing what to say.

We returned inside, only to have Tifa, who had just finished putting Marlene, who we were looking after for Barret, and Denzel to bed, shriek at the sight of my once more bleeding arm. As she cleaned the wound for the millionth time, she asked, "If this thing doesn't heal, can't you protect it better?"

"I can't fight more than fifteen Shadow Creepers at once and keep my useless arm out of harms way," I said, stating the name of those creatures that had attacked me so randomly.

And then, there came a knock at the door. Cloud said they were closed, but the knocker payed no attention and insisted on coming in by knocking harder. Growling under his breath, Cloud opened the door and a man dressed in black and his hood hiding his face came inside.

He muttered something about a package and asked for me.

"Do you know this man Latti?" Tifa asked, finishing bandaging my arm.

I let go of the cloak arm which hid my useless arm and examined the person better, but I couldn't see the face as the hood cast darkness that even the bar lights could not penetrate. "Nope."

He took out a long package and put it down on the table. "This is for Latti."

He left quickly after that, and we all gathered around the mysterious package on the table, wondering whether it was safe to open or not. Then I noticed something tucked underneath it, a badly cut card. I tugged it out, and flipped it over. The only thing written on it was, "So you've chosen them."

I couldn't not put a face to the handwriting, but when I opened the package, I had a big hunch on who the sender was. I grabbed the handle and pulled out my twinblade Sephiroth had deprived me of.

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© copyright LahtoriReikna  
**I'm sorry for the long wait. I had this, actually, one or two weeks ago half written, then I just got too busy to finish it.  
But I tried making it lengthy. I hope you like it. I really hope you like it.  
Thanks for reading. In the next chapter, we meet a character I introduced way back in the beginning again.**


	10. Returning to the ShinRa

**I'm sorry for the long wait everyone. I've been so busy!  
And to top it all off, my computer decides to become as slow as hell and instead of staticky sound, i don't have any sound at all.  
I'm so happy I'm getting a new computer...  
Anyway. Back on to the story, my apologies for being so evil and making you wait so much.  
One more thing I forgot to say, Advent Children has officially started, which means two years has passed. Cloud is 23 years old. Tifa is 22. Latti is 21.  
**

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**

I pulled out the twinblade, finding the blades shiny and brand new looking, not the way I had left them. Cloud took the card out of my hands to read it, Tifa looking over his shoulders to see. My sword had been cleaned and polished, something I rarely did unless I had nothing else to do.

"Do you know who wrote this?" Cloud asked, handing me back the card.

I shook my head, somewhat lying. "No, I can't put a face to the handwriting."

I replaced the the twinblade back into the sheath and put it on my back, hooking it right in place, as if it had never disappeared. If someone had gotten their weapon back, their most prized weapon back, they would have been happy. Me, I found it to be a warning. A warning that something was going to come and I needed my weapon back in order to survive. Not that a being of Jenova died or anything, until Jenova wants them to.

I spent that night awake, pondering on past events, seeing if something could give me any clues to what could happen. I was just attacked by Shadow Creepers for God's sake. But nothing of that kind happened for a week. No matter how much time I spent reviewing, I got no results and therefore gave up on it completely.

Cloud started to travel many places, and Tifa, with the help of Marlene, had work take up most of their time. Denzel helped out where he could, but he had been having many pain attacks, I felt he wouldn't survive anymore. But he did, so I stopped thinking kids weren't strong enough. The way I spent my time was trying to move my bad arm. I'd arrive at the bar that night, my arm bleeding again. Tifa swears that if I don't die from blood loss, she would kill me.

But no matter how much I trained, all I managed to do in three months was move my fingers. I figured I should just strengthen my right side and stop worrying about an arm that shouldn't even be there anymore.

It happened around the time Cloud returned to his habits of living in the run down church. I was walking to the grocery store on erands Tifa sent me to do. I saw so many people with Geostigma that it was a wonder someone didn't have it. But on my way to the store, it felt like a pair of eyes followed my every movement, though I could not see it, I could feel it.

It did not appear until after I had bought some stuff and headed back to the bar. Some more Shadow Creepers appeared, and the feeling of being watched disappeared. But I had trained heavily for the past months, and let no Shadow Creeper get the best of me. My left arm no longer proved a problem, even though it hung there dead. But everytime I got a minute closer to the bar, they kept on coming, as if slashing them wasn't enough.

When I arrived at the bar, Cloud was there as well. Apparently, the ShinRa had called, and requested that Cloud go there immediatly.

"Are you going to go or not?" Tifa asked, taking the shopping bags from me and began to put them away.

"I am, I have no choice do I? If I don't who up, Reno would come and get me," Cloud said. "But actually, Latti, I want to know if you want to come to."

"Me?" I asked. "Why?"

"Well, I know you despise the ShinRa and wish Rufus dead, like everyone does these days, I heard the Turks are staying for a while. I thought you could use the time I'm there to find some sparring partners to help with your left arm. They're all rookies, not insulting you in any way, but it could be worht it," Cloud responded.

And that's how I ended up at the ShinRa. I sat on my motorcycle, the same one Cloud had, looking at the Turks training as hard as possible. There was one, though, that wasn't practicing, he actually corrected people, most likely the instructor. He noticed my quite quickly and went over to my bike.

"May I help you?" he asked.

"I'm just passing by," I replied.

"Well, unless you don't know, if you're not part of the ShinRa, and just passing by, you should hurry up and leave. This place isn't for city folks," he said.

I recognized this person slowly. He wore a normal black uniform, for a Turk. I did mention I hated Turks right? Well, there's a good reason to spart with some of them. It slowly came back to me, but I really did know this person.

"Well, unless you don't know, I was part of the ShinRa. I'm older than you too, respect your elders yes? And I was going to just pass by, but now I decided to kick some of your trainees off this cliff," I spat.

The guy laughed. "As if. Older than me too? You're what, sixteen?"

I made a buzzer sound. "Nope, incorrect answer. I'm twenty-one."

He gave me a weird look, as if not believing it. I hopped off the seat and strechted the only arm that moved. "How about it? You and me, a little sparring match?"

He pretended to think about it, but he could not fool me. I could tell he really wanted to give it a shot, as if he wanted to show me that he was right and I just lied in everything I said. He ordered all the people training to step back and carefully watch this sparring match, telling them it would be a good way to learn.

He pulled out his metal weapon and waited for me to pull out my twinblade. When a long pause came and went, he said, "Take out your weapon."

"I don't want to make it too hard for you. It would look bad if an instructor can't beat me," I said.

He curled his upper lip, offended. "Don't say I didn't warn you."

His speed had increased from what I could remember, but I could still see him. As he came from below with his attack, I stopped his weapon with a finger. He tried to strike me again, but once more I blocked. He wouldn't understand that that would not work on me. After a while, I got bored and wanted to move on to a more interesting fight.

"Don't swing that like a madman. The only thing you'll manage to break is your fingers," I said.

He stopped, moved back a step and gave me another weird look. "What did you say?" he asked.

"The same thing I said years ago. I hope you improved, Axin," I said. "Cause here I come." And vanished.

* * *

© copyright LahtoriReikna  
**Yay! Next chapter has a fight, Latti vs Axin.  
Now, I know what you 'might' be thinking, Latti is way too powerful. But think about it, she can't beat Sephiroth. But she did learn under him, the ShinRa, Cloud, trained herself, and she IS a 'being from Jenova.' There are things Latti cannot win against, but I HATE Turks, and make them weak, cept for Reno (and Rude)! Reno rocks!  
But lets not preach who is better and whatnot. Sorry again for the long wait, I hope this one was long enough to fit your desires.  
Disclaimer: I do now own the FFVII series, but Latti is MY CHARACTER. Thanks.**


	11. Weird Feelings in Shadows

**Hey everyone! Sorry for the huge wait! I've been so busy and all over break.  
But its here now, and as a token of apology thing, I'm putting up the next chapter as well!  
So then, go read the story, not my blabbering!

* * *

**

Axin frantically looked around, trying to find where I had disappeared off to. By the time he realized, I was behind him.

"Strike," I said, and hit him with the edge of my hand on his neck.

He fell foward, the impact of the strike hard on his neck. His hand dropped his weapon to the ground and both his hands went up to his neck. I looked down at him and said, "Oops, did I hit too hard?"

Angry now, he recovered quickly and grabbed his rod, bringing it around and hard into my leg. The rooky crowd ooed and aahed at this, clapping and cheering on their instructer. Axin stood up and spat the words I said right back to me. I smirked and laughed a little. As he took his stance again, I got into mine. I had developed an easy way to keep my useless arm out of harms way. But by doing this, it left myself open in multiple places. I had trained to make sure I could guard all of those openings in case need be.

As Axin ran toward me, head on charge, I shifted my left foot to the right a little, and my hand went to the handle of my twinblade. His rod struck my two baldes, sending sparks flying through the air. The rookies clapped some more, no idea what had just happened in that two second span.

"I thought you wouldn't need to use your weapon?" Axin pointed out.

"I've decided its no fun without it," I replied, sending a burst of strength through the blades.

Axin recoiled before the burst reached his rod, which would then send the shock into his body. That's when he saw the reason for the stance he found bad. My left arm had not moved yet, not even the fingers. It floated with the air, like hair in the wind really. He determined that this arm was my weakness, and his next strike would hit my weakness. And it did.

I blinked as I felt the blood penetrate the bandages Tifa put on my arm, and felt it drip off my fingers to the ground. Axin stared, shocked at what he saw. He never hit that hard, barely grazed, since I had moved to avoid serious impact.

I struck the ground with my blades, sticking them straight up in the ground and used my hand to undo the cloak-arm that hid the bandages. This time, a gasp from the crowd and Axin followed. The bandages were all soaked, all red. In matter of seconds. I was used to this though, and just sighed as I undid the bandages, throwing them aside. I picked up my weapon once more, sighed once more, and vanished once more.

This time, I was to the right, crouched down below Axin's rod. I elbowed him in the stomach, vanished, came back to the left, kicked him with my heel, sending him flying to the crowd, and got behind him, stopping his flight with the end of my twinblade's handle.

"I win," I said, raising my blades to his neck. "Better luck next time."

I sheathed my blades and went back to my motorcycle, him following. I kicked the shiny black area below the seat, and a compartment revealved itself to the world. In there, Tifa's great first aid kit. I took it out, pulled out spare bandages and began wrapping my arm until it looked twice as thick. You could already see the pinkness beneath the layers as the blood soaked through. I retreaved my cloak-arm and strapped it back on, letting it drop down, my arm and hand vanishing in a swoop of darkness.

"That's one nasty wound," Axin exclaimed, putting away his rod.

"Eh. It's not that bad once you get used to it. Two years and its hardly even there anymore," I stated.

"What?" he said, gasping again. "Two years and it hasn't healed?"

I used my foot to close the door of the compartment. "Nope," I replied.

I seated myself onto the seat and kicked the engine into power. "You might want to go back to your crowd. I think you've got lots of explaining to do, and training," I said.

Axin became embarrassed and quickly ran back onto the field. Turks. I hate them.

I went to the building that Cloud was in, his motorcycle gleaming in the sun by the stairs. I cut the engines and found a more comfortable place to sit and wait. The tree besides the stairs seemed like a good place, so I sat there.

The moment I sat down, it felt like I was being choked. I felt something familiar in the air, but I couldn't quite seem to understand what it was. But as fast as it came, it was gone, so I left my mind to ponder this another time. But it came once more, and this time, I had the strangest theory of running away from it. I shook my head, jumped up to my feet and walked toward the presence. It came from behind the building, in the shadows.

"Okay, whoever is hiding there, come out," I said dumbly to the shadows.

The feeling disappeared at my voice, but a Shadow Creeper lept out. In one swing of my blades though, it lay dead, vanishing in puffs of black smoke. I sheathed my sword once more and waited there for the next ten minutes, but nothing happened.

The door to the building opened and Cloud stepped out. Someone was yelling something inside, and this resulted in the door being slammed shut. The building shook from the force used with it, and it brought my back to my senses. I exited the shadowy regions and returned to the steps, seeing Cloud descending the steps looking very angry, and clutching his arm.

"It's hurting again?" I asked.

Cloud gazed up, surprised to see me there. "Oh, no." he said. "I'm just a little ticked off you could say."

I raised an eyebrow. "Really?" I asked.

"On the more serious note, Tifa is going to have your head," he said, mentioning my arm.

The blood had once more demonstrated how bandages won't let it stop it, as it started to drip to the ground again. I shrugged my shoulders, "Its not my fault. Sparring with a guy I oversaw his training in my SOLDIER days. Got grazed by his metal rod, it'll stop in an hour or so," I replied, letting Cloud step onto the ground. "On a more serious note, something feels wrong here. I had this feeling twice, and I investigated the source, the shadows behind this very building. When I said something, the feeling vanished and a Shadow Creeper attacked me."

Cloud took this all in, mounting his motorcycle. "You're conclusion?" he asked.

"I'm not sure. I just think _Mr. President_ won't be staying long here," I said, spatting out hatred in the words Mr. President.

Cloud nodded his head, putting his keys into the slots and starting the roaring engines. I followed suit and in less than two minutes, we exited the ShinRa and were well on our way back to 7th Heaven.

* * *

© copyright LahtoriReikna  
**Well, there we have it. I wonder who... what... the little feeling this was? Will we ever find out?  
Well... maybe.  
Thanks for reading! I will go straight to working on the next chapter, and not to make up excuses, but I do have karate this very night, so I might not have time to finish it, but I will have it up tomorrow, cause I promised two chapters, and a promise is a promise.  
Sorry for the long excrutiating wait everyone!  
Disclaimer: I do not own the FFVII series, but Latti is my character, thanks much!**


	12. SilverHaired Strangers

**Here we go! The promised second chapter!****  
Enjoy!

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**

Two weeks had passed since Cloud and I had returned to 7th Heaven. Three days after we got back, Reno called on the phone stating they, meaning Rufus, Rude, and himself, were moving to the Healing Lodge for reasons not disclosed. They came up with the excuse of having to heal. No one took this news as surprising, after what I had told them. And now, two weeks later, Cloud once more left the bar to head out for the Healing Lodge.

Denzel used the last couple moments before Cloud left to talk to him, as it made it happy. Marlene was busy washing dishes, but she had already said her goodbye and good luck to him before. Tifa was with Denzel. I was in my room, staring out the window.

Two minutes later, the roar of engines aroused from the garage, and Cloud appeared beneath my window, speeding off once more to have a meeting with Rufus and the rest. It did not take long, an hour passed and the phone rang.

"Latti! Phone for you," she said.

I hopped to the ground and left my room, turning to the right in the hallway and went into Cloud's office. After swimming through tons and tons of papers, I found the phone and picked it up.

"Yeah?" I asked.

A silent pause before the answer, "I was attacked."

I blinked, looking at the picture frame by the phone. "By what?"

"Who actually. If you get rid of the Shadow Creepers _they_ summon," came Cloud's response. "Long silver hair, wearing black, spiked silver hair, also wearing black. And another I barely saw, but short silver hair and wearing black nontheless. One with a gunblade, the other with what I've thought to be a Dual Hound."

"I have no idea," I said.

"You sure?" he asked. "They called me Brother, and asked where Mother was."

I shrugged my shoulders, the only one that worked, though it made no good, as Cloud was far away and could not see me shrug my shoulders. "I don't know, honest. Though the guy with short silver hair sorta rings some bells," I said.

I heard Cloud sigh on the other side of the line. He said, "Well... Who knows. Talk to you tomorrow when I get back."

The phone went click and the line went dead. I put the phone down into its receiver and gazed once more at the picture frame. The only thing that I could see though, was a guy with short silver hair, wearing black, Kadaj. I shook my head, thinking of the possibilities that it could be him, but they were slim to none.

Denzel gave me a heart attack as he snuck up behind me and asked, "Why you looking so gloomy?"

I jumped off the ground, as if trying to grab onto the ceiling and stay there. "Denzel, don't scare me like that!" I said. "And who said I"m gloomy?"

Denzel shrugged and he too looked at the picture. He smiled when he saw all of us there, along with him. No one could be happier really, we were one happy family, if only Cloud didn't have so many things to do, and I stopped being all secretive to everyone. But hey, Denzel was happy.

"Come on," I said, tapping his back. "Lets go make some food for everyone."

He nodded his head and off he went back down the hallway and down the stairs. I followed suit, just a little slower. I grabbed some keys by the back door and shouted to Tifa that I was taking Denzel out to get some food. Denzel grabbed a coat and lead the way to the open streets of Midgar, which had gotten in worse condition that the worst it could possibly be.

We managed to find a good, trusty-looking store that sold fresh food instead of rotten ones. Denzel went around pointing out the stuff that seemed nice to eat and I obediently took it and put it into a bag. After paying, we headed straight home, and ran into some problem in the plaza first. Though it was not uncommon, it was still weird that Shadow Creepers came out in broad daylight. Not to mention they were only after us, well, me.

I shoved the bag towards Denzel and whipped out my twinblade, putting all Creepers to rest for good. I told Denzel to go home, that I'd be there soon, and then followed the trail of black mist. They led me to a dark alley way, filled with many orphaned children. Going past them, I saw they were all affected by Geostigma. My eyes went up to the sky, where I could see the LifeStream.

Being in my own little world, I ended up running into someone again, like the good old me. "Oh, I'm sorry! I wasn't watching where I was going," I apologzed.

The man was wearing all black, and had long flowy silver hair. As I looked harder, he seemed to fit the brief description Cloud gave me over the phone. But how could someone who attacked Cloud be in Midgar right now? He turned around and I saw his eyes were blueish green, and not human like really. My left arm throbbed under the bandages, sending jolting pain into my arm.

The man slowly turned around, and began to say, "Se-" but cut himself short when he saw who I was. This confused me, but I just apologized again, trying to be polite.

He rethought his words and said, "What were you doing running down this alley at top speed?"

I raised an eyebrow, why would he want to know. "I'm just chasing after something, its gone now though," I replied, slowly.

He smiled a little, and got out of the way. I told him though, just a few seconds ago, what I had been chasing had disappeared. It was too late now. But he just smiled at me, and pointed his finger further down the alley, where the black mist like trail continued. I went to ask him how he knew what I was chasing, but he was not there when I looked back. Shrugging my only good shoulder, I turned and headed back home.

On the roof of one run down building, the same man looked down at me walking home. He took out his cellphone and used speedial to call a friend most likely. He only said a couple of words before hanging up and running off again, "I found her."

Denzel waited impatiently for my return by the door. He jumped up when he saw me coming, unhurt.

"Denzel, you didn't have to wait for me," I said, closing the door behind me.

"I wanted to," he said. "You and Cloud are always so busy and going places you know."

I took the bags laying on one of the tables in the bar and went into the kitchen in the back, putting the food away in its proper places. Denzel started to get out plates and other useful utencils as Marlene came in. She quickly noticed our plan to make food and joined in.

That night, we had a nice dinner. But that was probably the last nice dinner we would have together for some time now...

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© copyright LahtoriReikna  
**I'm sorry this one wasn't very entertaining or anything. Its one of those chapters you know.  
I hope you still liked it, and look foward to the next chapter.  
Things are starting to heat up, as Latti will start to learn who these new silver-haired people are...  
Disclaimer: I do not own the FFVII 'series' but Latti is my character, thanks!**


	13. Kidnapping

**Well Well Well. What have we here...  
The next chapter of course!  
Yeah, I'll stop acting stupid now. Enjoy!

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**

I walked down the dark alley way that I had met that man with the silver hair. The street had become diserted, not even one orphaned child sat by the walls of the rotting houses. I had no idea what I was doing there, I was just there and walking down it.

As I passed under the statue of an angel, I felt a similar presence again, and it came from before me. The street that stretched for miles ahead grew too dark to see an inch in front of you. My hand krept to the handle of my twinblade, ready to strike at anything that jumped out at me. In the darkness, a silhouette started to form, walking towards me. A few seconds later, it started to run, then glide, then it just seemed to fly right at me.

Before I could react, it disappeared and instead, someone stood beside me. A hand stopped my hand from unsheathing my twinblade. Slowly, I turned my head to see who it was.

I woke up, sitting up in my bed, my eyes wide open and alert to my surroundings. My hand rested on my twinblade which lay besides me on the nightstand. It took me a while to realize that I was in my room, in 7th Heaven. After I calmed down a bit, I thought things through.

_That's the fourth time that I've had this dream. _I thought to myself. _What the hell is going on?_

I flicked on the light, well aware that any loud noises will wake up everyone who were fast alseep. The clock shone big green numbers, it was only four o'clock in the morning. I got up, grabbed my cloak arm and put it on, hiding the newly soaked in blood bandages I had put on the night before. I looked back at the bed, _At least this time, it didn't get on the sheets. Tifa would freak again._

I walked over to the window and stared out at the dark night sky. Something soon caught my eye, headlights. But it wasn't Cloud, I knew that, cause he would have called and no one would be alseep. It came towards the bar and stopped right under my window, and it shut up its motor, but not the headlight. With a little squinting, I could barely distinguish who it was.

Danger. That's all I could think about right now. I quickly turned to get my twinblade, but I felt two sharp points gently push on my spine.

"Who's there?" I asked, stopping my motion.

"Family," a voice said from behind.

I felt the sharp ends pierce through the jacket I had on. Before it could shoot me, I took a step foward, knelt down and swung my left leg at the persons feet in one move. It jumped to avoid being knocked off its feet. I took the time it landed to sprint for my sword, but the person somehow got there before me. It once more pointed two shard ends at my, this time, at my face, a hand crunching mine so I couldn't grasp my twinblade.

I recognized the weapon it used now. A Dual Hound. I took another step back, and flipped onto my bed, grabbing the boots I had almost tripped on. I threw one of them at the person, but once more, it seemed like teleportation. The only thing my boot hit was the lamp on the wall. Glass shattered to the ground, and a light turned on in the hallway.

"Latti?" came Denzel's voice.

The person took that time to once more step behind me, he held his weapon to my back, this time, he shot me. Pain shooted up my spine and into my brain. I fell onto the bed, conscious, but not really moving any time soon. Things got hazy, but I saw the person grab my twinblade and then picked me up and jumped out my window. When we got near the lights, I could barely see cause of the glares of the light, but I saw that this guy had silver hair too.

Silver was becoming my least favorite color these days.

Denzel opened my room, stepped on broken glass and let off a scream in pain. Now more lights came on and Tifa came rushing in, barely awake. Marlene came, but slower. Tifa didn't notice much except the fact that I had disappeared. Of course, she also freaked out about the piece of glass from the lamp that stuck out from underneath Denzel's foot. Before carrying Denzel out to avoid further injury, she looked at the open window and saw a speak of white in the darkness.

**_-Healing Lodge-_**

"She's what?" Cloud yells into his phone shocked.

"She's gone. Something seemed really odd, but she kept on waking up bleeding. She wouldn't tell me why though. But last night, Denzel heard a crash, one of the lamps had broken, and her window was open. Apart from that, everything seemed normal, apart that she wasn't in her room," Tifa calmly explained.

"Hm... I think I might know who they are," Cloud said. "They're probably the people who attacked me."

**_-Somewhere-_**

My head spun like crazy when I woke up and everything came back into good views. I was sitting, back agaisnt some white thing, and my twinblade resting next to me. It took another five minutes before I realized that almost everything here was white. It can't be real, I must be dreaming again. I'll jsut wait for that flying thing and wake up.

"It's all real, you aren't dreaming," the same voice from my room said.

The man towered over me, and I saw the Dual Hound on his arm. This was the person who had attacked me.

"Loz. Get going, man, you're so slow!" another voice came from behind the wall.

The man, Loz, grumbled something, but regained a straight posture and walked away.

I slowly got up and looked at my surroundings clearly. It was a white building actually, thought it was shaped weirdly and it seemed like a giant seashell from the first look. I grabbed my twinblade and unsheathed it, swung it once in the air, before going towards the front of the building.

There, I saw to who the voice belonged to. It was the man with the long silver hair, that I met in the dark alley way a few days ago. He smirked towards me but did not say anything. Even though I was fully recovered and armed, he did not even blink.

"What do you want?" I demanded.

He shrugged. "You think I know. Just wait here and watch, Latti," he replied.

"How d'you know my name?" I asked.

He did not reply. I returned to the previous spot I was in and searched for my cellphone, unfortunately, I had taken out before I fell alseep. The man laughed at me and threw me his cellphone. I was really confused by this. Wasn't I a prisoner? But I took it anyway and dialed Cloud's number. Once again, to my luck, his phone was busy. Angry, I threw the cellphone really hard at the man, but he just caught it like it was a flower and out it away, and then left.

I caught a glimpse of red in the white trees. I went toward the trees and a cellphone slid from the grass to my feet silently. I picked it up and flicked it open. A message was typed onto the screen: Don't do anything stupid. I suggest you wait until help arrives. That man, is Yazoo. Another, Loz, and the last, Kadaj.

I dropped the phone and backed away from the trees. The red must have belonged to Vincent, but how did he know who these people were?

* * *

© copyright LahtoriReikna  
**Thanks for reading everyone! Hope this one was good.  
I'll have another chapter up soon. Just you wait! Things get interesting!  
Disclaimer: I do not own the "FFVII Series" but Latti is my character, thanks.**


	14. Kadaj and Latti: Part I

**Sorry for the long wait everyone. I just got a Wii, so I'm playing that nonstop (and had a paper to write for school).  
But anyway, I won't keep up any more precious time!  
READ and ENJOY!**

* * *

I woke up once more from my nap when I heard a familiar voice shout my name. I sat up, yawned once before adjusting my eyes to the night, even though the white scenery seemed to give off sunlight. I turned around and saw Marlene, a hand tightly wrapped around her arm. That hand belonged to the man who had kidnapped me, Loz. I grabbed my twinblade and walked over to them. 

"Why is Marlene here?" I demanded.

Loz just smirked, and my eyes then flickered to the box next to him. I knew what was inside, since I had helped Cloud gather up the materia while I had nothing else to do.

"Tifa! Tifa is!" Marlene shouted at me, getting my attention once more.

I narrowed my eyes, and tightened my hand around the handle of my sword. "Let go of Marlene," I commanded, and he did just that.

Marlene ran over to my side and hid behind me. I was pretty angry now, but I couldn't even beat him in my room, though I must have been tired, and, if Marlene told the truth, Tifa had lost to this guy too. But there wasn't much time to think about it, as Loz put his arm witht he Dual Hound up, smirking. I twitched and jumped at him, swinging my blades.

Sparks flew all over the place when my twinblade hit something, in this case, not the Dual Hound, but another twinblade. My new opponent had his face down, and his hair hid his eyes, but I knew immediatly who it was. I jumped back, lowering my blade and protected Marlene. The new guy swung his blade before actually looking at who he had blocked. Sharp pain overwhelmed all the feeling I had in my body, the source coming from my useless arm I hated so much.

My grip on my twinblade loosesened and the blade fell to the ground as my hand grabbed my arm.

"Kadaj," I muttered.

The sound of wheels came now, and the other guy, Yazoo, drove up to the lake, the back of the car filled with children, most likely all of them were affected by the disease. I had no idea what was going on, but the face that startled me was Denzel.

"Denzel!" I murmured, but Kadaj heard my and smirked.

I forgot all about the pain I felt and staggered toward him, but Kadaj stopped me with his twinblade blocking my way.

"You only get to watch," he said, coming towards me.

He held his other hand out and grabbed my scarred arm, making my grit my teeth in pain. Then he threw me against the white wall of the building as if I was a pillow. I knocked my head against the wall, and felt myself go all dizzy. I did not loose conscious, but I could not move. This time, the pain wasn't something I could just forget if I tried hard enough. Marlene gave of a shriek and ran over to my side.

A good five hours passed, during that time, Kadaj gave a fake speech to the children, and they all bought into it and became his little pawns, as I saw it. Marlene was the only one who had not drunk any water, but Denzel had, enough reason for me to get angry, but what would I be able to do? My arm was such a disadvantage.

Around the fifth hour, the sound of a motorcycle slowly came to our ears, and feeling krept back into my body. The pain had died down and I managed to stand up, though I kept a hand on the wall at all time to keep myself standing. In ten minutes, Cloud could be seen coming over the horizon, and Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo waited to greet him a few feet ahead of me.

All of the kids surrounded the area as well, and when Cloud saw Marlene and Denzel in the center of the crowd, he was forced to jump off his motorcycle to avoid hitting them. Loz stopped the motorcycle with his foot like he did it everyday. Cloud, now on the ground from the sudden events, was weaponless and wide open to any attack, which Kadaj chose to use.

He brought his sword up, and right after he slightly moved his hand, Marlene and I shouted, "Cloud!"

I ran, picked up my sword and threw it at Kadaj, falling onto my knees once more, as I was still not too stable. Kadaj tsked as he blocked my flying sword and Cloud picked up his sword. My mind spun around in circles inside my head, I could barely see clearly what was going on between Cloud and the other three.

Kadaj seemed to turn into Sephiroth in front of my eyes, then back to Kadaj, making my head hurt. I really wanted to help, I really wanted to do something. But now I was faced with the choice again, the decision that had cost me my arm ages back. Cloud, or Kadaj?

Which one?

Cloud?

Kadaj?

The area around me seemed to pause. The pain disappeared all of a sudden and I could stand up without having any supporting help. Cloud in the air, Yazoo and Loz in their mid attack, Kadaj looking up at their fight. Everything had paused, even the air, nothing moved and everything was perfect. I felt so much better, not being in pain. I moved to get my twinblade off the ground.

_Cloud?_

I picked up my twinblade, swinging it in a circle, looking at it with great force I could have bent the blades if I could do such a task.

_Kadaj?_

No words could describe how I felt. It seemed like nothing could bring me down. Those two names barely reached my mind. Did this mean I was going crazy or something? But I felt happy. And then it was gone. Everything, still paused in its action, turned foggy.

My happiness faded away like it hadn't even been there. Everything resumed what it was doing, and no one even questioned how I was standing, holding my twinblade. No one seemed to pay attention to me. Cloud fell and Vincent's red cloak engulfed him, and in a matter of seconds, took off, leaving nothing behind but a cellphone which fell into the water.

Kadaj turned to face me, sheathing his sword. He did not question how my pain had died away, but he did walk up close to me and whispered in my ear, "I can heal that arm of yours."

* * *

© copyright LahtoriReikna  
**I know the place where everything paused was kinda dumb...  
I think I'm having writers block.  
Please please tell me if its interesting, and be honest, cause if its not, then I'm going to really chop off my hands, grow a new pair and find a new brain and make the next chapter the best. I just find it hard since there's so many things going on...  
Erm, next chapter: Kadaj vs. Latti. And some other stuff. Maybe, most likely.  
Disclaimer: I do not own the FFVII "series" but Latti is my character, thanks much.**


	15. Kadaj and Latti: Part II

**I'm so sorry if the last chapter sucked.  
I hope this one makes up for it.

* * *

**

I took a step back, looking at Kadaj with suspicion writen all over my face. He smirked, and said, "You don't want to get it healed?"

"It's not that I don't, it's that it won't," I said, my hand correctly positioned on the handle of my twinblade.

Kadaj smirked again. "How do you know that?" he asked, coaxingly.

"I don't. And you want to say something right, so just say it and let me leave, I've watched you're little presentation already," I said.

Kadaj just shrugged. "What I want to say won't do you any good unless you heal your arm. But you won't listen to how you can heal it, so I guess I won't waste my time. And I never said you couldn't leave, all I said was you had to watch nicely. You can go to your Cloud, I don't care."

"How can you be so certain that if I go back to Cloud you won't loose next time?" I snapped.

"Like you could do anything with that _arm_ of yours," Kadaj replied.

"Shut up," I yelled, anger growing inside of me.

I turned on my heels and began to run off, then slowed my pace down to just a walk. Kadaj, following behind me, whispered, "If you don't heal your arm, it might just take over your body. After all, it isn't just a normal unhealing wound, or scar, call it whatever you want."

I gritted my teeth to keep me from screaming and kept on walking.

"Brother can't heal your arm. You, Sister, can't either. He might be able to, but why would he when he belives you betrayed him, which you did at this point," he kept on whispering behind me.

I clenched my hand tightly into a fist, but kept on walking away.

"Look at that, you can't even move the fingers on your useless arm. It gets in the way when you fight, nothing can even come near it," he said.

"Stop bluffing Kadaj, you can't heal it. Just like you cannot heal Geostigma," I said, not stopping, in fact, picking up the pace.

Kadaj takes a fast step and stops me in my tracks. He grabs my arm, ripped some of the bandages off and runs two fingers up the ends of my scar, going up about two or three centimeters. He let go and I noticed that the part he had touched had gone away.

"Hmph, its only an illusion," I said. "If you could heal it, I could move it."

Kadaj smirked, "You are right, I cannot heal your arm. But I can help in ways you wouldn't think were needed."

The scar returned and he went on to say, "So then, go one to your Cloud and... holler if you ever decide that my help is needed, I might just come to the rescue."

Then he turned away and walked back to the other two, leaving me alone. It took me a long time before I could actually find Cloud and Vincent, along with Marlene, who had hidden themselves in the white trees near a stream. They all noticed that my arm had no bandages, but did not question it. But the thing they did question was my expression.

"Latti, are you okay?" Cloud asked.

"Who knows." I said.

**_-The next afternoon-_**

It took us a very long time to reach Midgar, and when we got there, it was in chaos and panic. People running everywhere, and Shadow Creatures chasing after them. At the monument, smirking, stood Loz and Yazoo, who were quickly confronted by Rude and Reno. The children stood in a circle around the monument, though there were empty spots where someone had managed to grab them and pull them to safety.

As I got off the back of Cloud's motorcycle, I could tell by a feeling more than seeing that Kadaj and Rufus were watching the scene from a unfinished contruction project.

Tifa looked at us, very happy to see us, but not happy to see that my arm had once more caused problems. This arm is so useless, all it does it cause problems for everyone, not just myself. But I could not trust Kadaj. In a mere few minutes, Kadaj had summoned a Bahamut, as it came rushing down at the monument, the place where they belives "Mother" resided.

As Cloud and Tifa ran off with the other members of their party, I felt sick all of a sudden. I tried to move my feet and follow them, but they were rooted to the ground. I tried to say something but nothing came out of my mouth. The world around me started to become black again, as it did so many times before. But this time it was without pain, until everything really did become black. The tip of a sword had pierced through my stomach.

It shone brightly in the dark, and when the wielder pulled it out, I turned around, clutching my bleeding wound. After my eyes adjusted, I could see who it was.

Sephiroth.

Why? Why is he there? He was killed.

_But you would've died along with him. You are a fool for thinking that he is dead. Hasn't Hojo said it enought times, a being from Jenova does not die._

That was my voice. I looked around, but all there was was me, darkness, and Sephiroth. But when I looked back, he had changed. It was now me. A mere image, like I stared in a mirror. But it was a different me as well. My eyes were unmerciful, and my useless arm moved.

Who are you? I wanted to ask that so badly, but once more, I found myself unmoving.

_I am you. You are me. We are one._

What do you want? I thought, as it seemed to be able to read my thoughts. It was me, so I guess it should be able to.

_I want you to die. If you die, I can take over your body and right the wrong you have created._

**_-Reality-_**

Kadaj looked down from the building, first at Cloud and the others, then to his own Brothers, then he fell on me. I had not moved since I had gotten off the motorcycle. My eyes were glazed over and I seemed out of it. Kadaj smirked.

Rufus followed his gaze as well, noticing the oddity of what I was "doing."

"You told her haven't you? But this has quickened the pace, it might prove fatal to your plans," Rufus said.

Kadaj, still smirking, shook his head in disagreement. "Not really," he replied. "She is completely defenseless, and if she dies, so does Cloud and everyone around him. Since the very beginning, there were two Latti's. The one Sephiroth created, and the one Hojo did. It was not always like this, for the second Latti was created when Sephiroth attacked her. But if she miraculously survives, she will 'awaken' you can say."

"So then Hojo's documents were correct. She has been connected to Sephiroth. She is too connected, as he once said. He found no cure for it though," Rufus said. "Whatever happens to Sephiroth, happens to her."

"When he comes out again, she will do the same. When he dies, if he dies, she will too," Kadaj said.

"And you think that by these standards, Cloud will hesitate?" Rufus asked.

"If he doesn't, then he doesn't have a heart," Kadaj said, smirking again.

"I see," Rufus said, standing up.

Kadaj turned, shocked that Mr. President could actually stand out of his wheelchair. He swung off his white cloak and revealed that, he was not injured as much as people could have guessed. But Kadaj barely noticed that, he noticed the sealed black box.

"Mother!" he yelled.

Rufus threw the box over the side of the building, watched it fall before falling himself, barely escaping the blast of magick Kadaj had aimed at him. The thirteenth floor began to explode, and Kadaj yelled mother once more before jumping off the side, trying to fall as fast as he could to catch the box. During that same moment Kadaj jumped, the Bahamut fell to the ground, defeated by Cloud.

I had remained in the position I had been the last minutes that had passed. The only change was that my scar was emitting black smoke, small puffs, turning into constants streams of smoke.

_I want you to die. If you die, I can take over your body and right the wrong you have created._

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© copyright LahtoriReikna  
**How was it? Good maybe yes? A pretty good length too.  
If you haven't already guessed, next chapter: Latti vs. Latti  
Suprise surprise maybe next chapter too. Hint hint: think Kadaj. Kadaj has said some pretty interesting things there. So what does it all mean?  
Who knows.  
I know.  
Disclaimer: I do not own the "FFVII series" but Latti is my character. MY character. thanks.**


	16. Latti vs Latti

**Sorry for the long wait everyone.  
With the new season of Naruto starting, the snow outside, and twilight princess on the wii, I've been busy busy.  
Without anymore waiting, chapter 16!

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**

The person resembling me took out the same twinblade I had, and then, with the scarred arm, summoned another sword from the air. I squinted my eyes, how was I... she able to do that?

The girl smirked, and said, _You might want to start running. Or are you just going to face death right away?_

I twisted my feet, and they moved. I had been released by whatever had held me down. The girl came rushing toward me with every intent to kill. I dodged the twinblade but did not avoid the other sword. I squinted my eyes, if this was me, then why was this me stronger than the real me? I gritted my teeth as warm blood splattered out of my wound.

_Cause you let emotions get in the way! You lost everything he taught you for emotion! You can't even wield that twinblade correctly anymore!_

Angry at what she said, I grabbed my twinblade, crouched down on the ground, bringing the blades behind me. Without any warning, I lunged out at her, and we began a furious series of attacking and blocking without any intention of stopping. But she laughed. She laughed, enjoying this fight. I flipped over her, and brought my twinblade downward, hoping to strike her back.

But she blocked with her summoned sword, then weaved the blade inbetween the two of mine. I could not free my sword, and I had to let go as she attacked to dodge.

_Hahaha. You see now, what you could have been?_

She threw my twinblade into the darkness. I could no longer see it, and there was no hope on retrieving it either.

_What are you going to do now? You're weaponless. You can't move an arm. There's no where to run._

The normal sword went right through my stomach. I grabbed the blade with one hand, keeping it from being pulled out. The girl just laughed and smirked. _What are you going to do now? Haha, you are dead and I can finally take over!_

All of a sudden, we both squinted in pain. I recovered quicker and knocked the twinblade from her hand with my foot. Her twinblade also vanished in the darkness. When she recovered, her laughing stopped. She let go of the sword, which vanished in a puff of black smoke. She jumped back a little, massaging her hands. I stumbled backwards, and wiped my hand, which bled a little from the blade, on my other arm.

If this went on, we would be at a stale mate. I would get hurt, but I could get rid of any weapon she brought out. But I don't want to stay like this. I have to help Cloud. I have to stop Kadaj. Once more, we both flinched in pain. What is going on?

The pain became frequent, and I noticed that that me could not handle it. But I had grown more than accustemed to this. But still, I could not do anything, I had no weapon to inflict damage. If only I had some of her talents that she says I lost cause of emotions. I was out of plans. I sunk down onto my knees, the me over there now silently screaming from the increasing pain.

"Where's that confidence of you taking over my body gone to now?" I asked.

_Shut up!_

"Not much to look at now. You may be strong, but inside you are weak. This pain you feel is like a tickle to me," I continued.

_You're not much to look at! You're bleeding a lot, and you scar is bleeding as well! Mine isn't!_

"You're scar has healed. Sephiroth created you when he hit me. That's why you can move that arm. I understand it all now. The one reason Hojo kept me locked up for so long, to avoid something like this from happening. Heh, that useless doctor," I kept on saying. "That's why you are strong. You are what Sephiroth saw in me. In fact, you could become someone as strong as he. But I don't want that."

_So you've figured something out for once! But you lie. You want this power. You want to move your arm again too._

"If it's to become that thing I see in front of me, then I'd rather not!" I said.

The blackness began to turn white. It blinded me and I heard that me scream loudly this time. I bent over in pain as well. Something was going on in the real world, something that concerned Sephiroth, most likely. And if he isn't dead...

"Tell me how to get out of here! Now!" I yelled. "You have no more power inside here!"

_You'll have to destroy me in order to do that._

I had feared this, since I couldn't do that. The pain decreased, then ceased. The color white darkened back to the color black.

The person there stopped everything. I tried to stand up, but my legs had stopped working. I had lost too much blood. She summoned, again, two swords. She began walking towards me, slowly, but her confidence returning. I sighed at it, this had no end. Well, it will, since I can't really do anything anymore. One more strike of her swords and I'm done for.

The two swords rose up in the air, glittering with the blackness. I put up my hands, the only things that seemed to work, as if trying to stop the attack.

The swords which I had thought would hit me struck something invisible. We both gasped out. My scarred arm had moved. It had moved! And not only that, but my twinblade, which had disappeared, was in my hands again, blocking both blades. I did not understand.

My body moved on its own accord. I stood up, shaking at the knees a little, but kept my posture. My scarred arm had another sword in it, like the other me had at the begining. My feet dragged my towards the girl, and a series of attacks came, forcing her to fall backwards as her blocks weakened.

"I hate to do this to myself, but if its the only way out," I said. "Please go away."

It was over in a split second. As my swords pierced her body, she screamed one more time, then vanished in the blackness. I opened my eyes, and found myself alone in the deserted plaza, twinblade and sword in my hands. Rufus, who was in his wheelchair and surrounded by Turks and ShinRa members, pointed in the direction Cloud and the others must have gone.

Maybe, my thoughts about Rufus and Hojo were a little wrong. I still didn't like them.

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© copyright LahtoriReikna  
**Erm, yeah. I don't know what to say here. So until next time!  
Disclaimer: I do not own the "FFVII series" but Latti is MY character.**


	17. Latti and a Deadly Bullet

**Everyone waited a lot huh? Gomen gomen, so busy busy with life. Yeah.  
English... Though the language is the "best" the subject is the "worst"... too much work. As you can see.  
It's been half a month or something like that.  
Enjoy!

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**

I tore down the street, flew down the highway, fell to empending doom but landed softly on my feet. I took off, following the motorcycle tracks to the church, jumped up on the fallen collumns, and glided toward the darkning sky. In the sky, apart from Sephiroth and the dark clouds and all the evilness, there was a ship. This, I noticed, must be Cid's new "babe" as he called it. I saw it hover above the spec of what was Cloud before turning back to watch from a safe distance.

For a second, I thought that I should not interfere. But my feet thought something different and in ten minutes times, I stood close to Cloud and Sephiroth. Cloud was using all his power to land a hit on Sephiroth, but none landed and were deflected easily.

Everything stopped when I threw a sword at Sephiroth, missing horribly. They both turned at me, shocked to see me.

"What?" I asked.

"How?" Sephiroth spat.

"Your arm! It moved!" Cloud exclaimed.

I glared at Sephiroth, then smirked, "You think that old little scar would keep me away?"

This triggered Sephiroth's anger and he lunged at me, his sword piercing my arm again. My bone cracked but I felt nothing. In my other hand, my twinblade. It dug into Sephiroth's side. He glared at that hand and pulled out his sword from my arm, and went to cut my hand off. But the second the blade rose in the air, another sword appeared in my hand, with a long blade, and stopped his sword from moving.

My grip on the twinblade tightened and I quickly pulled it out of his side.

"So, in the end, you do betray me!" he tells me. "But why... Why do you have this power?"

I shrugged, jumping back a little. "I don't know. Why don't you ask Jenova?" I mused.

Cloud reawakens from his trance he fell into when I arrived, and saw my arm broken and bleeding and assumed the worst. I made no more moves now. I was happy. I smiled and Sephiroth looked taken aback. He did not comment though, and returned to finding a way of hurting Cloud. I watched their fight, silently cheering for Cloud and still smiling. I evaded a couple of falling debris and building and ducked under flying chunks of metal. As I watched them fight on, Cloud was loosing his strength to the point where he was cornered by a wall.

Sephiroth, while saying something, gave me a quick glance, and then said something inaudible to Cloud. Cloud's hand went on the blade instantly, as Sephiroth shot his free hand out, power from nowhere erupting and coming straight towards me. It took me by surprise, and I could not react to it. There was a flash of bright light and nothing more.

As the light slowly disappeared, Sephiroth had been utterly defeated in that one second, powerful move Cloud preformed nicely. Before vanshing in his feathers, Sephiroth took one final look at me. But he did not see me. He saw someone very familiar to him. I could tell in his mind, the words, "Why?" were in his thoughts.

I stood by Cloud's side as Kadaj returned to being part of the lifestream. I looked up at the Lifestream, happy and sad for Kadaj. Cloud turned to face me, and he smiled, just for a second or two, but it was there.

Cid brought his ship close by and everyone was waving and cheering from the windows. Through all of this excitment, no one heard the faint footsteps coming from behind but me. I quickly turned my back to the cheering crowd and took hurried steps as a gunshot pierced the air.

Cloud fell foward, and the people in the ship all let off a horrified gasp. Their cheering vanished in that one second after the gunshot was heard. My good hand went to my stomach, and my eyes grew wide. To survive everything, to survive all the pain Sephiroth put me through, was to end up being shot? I was given protection, the power to awaken these powers that had laid dorment inside my body Hojo created. But a bullet could break everything?! My world shattered like glass and I fell to the ground, my twinblade flying out of my hand.

At least... Cloud was alright...

"Cloud!"

**_- Some Time Later -_**

Cloud woke up, floating on water. He recognized the place and righted himself so he stood in the water. The kids around him smiled. Then everyone, not just Tifa, Yuffie, Cid, Barret, and Vinvent, but a lot of other people from Midgar. Such a joyful place it turned into. Denzel was cured of Geostigma and the disease was no longer any threat to mankind.

After some celebration, Cloud stopped and looked at Tifa. "Where's Latti?" he asked.

Tifa looked at the ground, Yuffie following Tifa's lead. Slowly and not wanting to, all five of them moved to the right a little. Cloud eyes grew wide at what he saw.

"How?" he asked. "How?"

"Yes, well..." Tifa couldn't say anything.

Vincent said it for her, "She stepped in front of you, which you figured out already, and took the bullet that was meant for you. As you can see, it was a nasty wound."

Cloud got out of the water and walked toward the bench. He grabbed my pale, dead hand, but the moment he did, it disappeared. He sunk to his knees, head bowed, as my body vanished into the air. Everything went silent, as if no one could talk anymore.

**_-Two Months Later-_**

Cloud was heading out to the grocery store that had recently opened up. Midgar had regained its color and returned to the glorious city it used to be long ago. The bar had become extremely busy again, therefore, resources ran out quickly. Not only that, but Cloud was responsible for the orphans which he supported while waiting for either their original family to pick them up, or a new family if their original parents had not survived for some reason.

While he searched for the items listed by Tifa on a list, he thought he saw someone familiar, but he couldn't get a good view. Pushing those thoughts to the back of his head, he finished his shopping, payed for the food and drinks, and headed back out to his motorcycle. There, he saw, once more, that person who looked so familiar. He was about to catch her attention when she turned around and walked off.

Shrugging it off, Cloud went back to the bar, and there, passing by the graveyard, he saw that girl again. He stopped the engines and got off his motorcycle, approaching the girl.

"Excuse me?" he asked politely.

The girl looked older up close, around twenty-two or something. She had grey eyes and had black hair with dark blue roots. She wore a black shirt with no left sleeve. Instead, it was bandaged up, with a blue stripe running down the side. She had on black baggy pants with five chains on one side, and three belts, each of them holding a sword, one a twinblade, the other two normal swords. She had on warm looking boots with many buckles and the soles of the shoes seemed to be metal.

This person looked so much like.

"Latti?" Cloud gasped out.

The girl smiled and pointed to a tombstone next to Zack's. "Who said I died?"

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**The End.**

© copyright LahtoriReikna  
**That's the end folks! Ta da!  
If you can't already guess, I would say Latti and Cloud pretty much get together, but its really up to you to decide.  
But yeah, I hope you liked the story. Thanks so much for reading until the end! You make me happy! Happy!!!!  
Disclaimer: I do not own the FFVII "series" but Latti is my character till the end of the world. Thanks.**_  
Thanks again for reading!_


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